


War of Hearts

by harryjamesgranger



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Quidditch, Teenager Relationships, Triwizard Tournament, Yule Ball, goblet of fire - Freeform, plot divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:53:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harryjamesgranger/pseuds/harryjamesgranger
Summary: Penny Winters knows exactly what's important this year - her O.W.L's and crushing it as Quidditch Captain.She doesn't have time for cute boys and dating. They only distract her from her goals and her priorities.Unfortunately, the reintroduction of a centuries-old tournament and conflicting feelings threaten to reorganize her life, whether she likes it or not.What's a girl to do?
Relationships: Cedric Diggory/Original Female Character(s), Dean Thomas/Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this story is the result of quarantine and my doctor making me self-isolate for a week. I know that OC's have a bit of a bad rap and people tend to not want to read them, which I understand.
> 
> Hopefully you'll give Penny and her boys a go.

Her eyes burnt, stinging painfully under the strain of both unshed tears and sheer exhaustion.

She wasn’t sure what time it was now, how long it had been since everyone had vacated the room and the castle had gone to sleep after one hell of a night. If she had the strength to get her wand, she might’ve cast a Tempus charm and figured out exactly what the time was.

Or maybe she wouldn’t have. Time was useless to them now, just another way of cataloging the seconds that passed between the old normal and whatever this new normal that they would have to adjust to was.

She knew that she should have slept, should have shut her eyes and allowed her body to rest after god knows how many hours of stress and worry. But she couldn’t. The idea of shutting her eyes and leaving him, even for a moment of unconsciousness, caused her heart race to pick up uncomfortably. He had been through more than enough tonight and through this year as a whole.

She needed to be here for him and to do that, she couldn’t sleep.

Her blue eyes moved over his body for what felt like the millionth time since they’d brought him into the hospital. His normally vibrant skin was dull and battered, bruises peeking out from the clothes he’d worn earlier. His hand, which she hadn’t released since being allowed into the room, was limp and clammy in her grip.

She felt a single traitorous tear slip down her cheek, making her bite down on her bottom lip to stop it from trembling.

They had said that it was a waiting game now, that they had to wait for him to wake up before they could know what his recovery would look like.

They seemed cautiously optimistic, but the general consensus had been that he would wake up. That it was just a matter of when, not if.

Penny couldn’t help but have her doubts though.

What if she had really said goodbye to him for the last time?

After everything they had been through this year, could this really have been the end?

It seemed so anti-climactic for it to just end like this.

A slow creak has her jumping in her seat, her head whipping around and meeting a pair of dark eyes across the room, her wand gripped tightly in her hand.

“What are you doing here?” Her voice came out hoarse and croaky after hours of non-use, her heartrate still thumping erratically in her chest.

“Figured you’d still be here,” He shrugged, stepping further into the room, his hands shoved in his pockets, “Didn’t think you’d have been able to stay away after tonight.” There’s a hint of something in his tone, it’s not exactly bitterness but there’s a longing there that makes her heartache more than it already was.

They had all been through a lot this year, but she never expected to have to break someone’s heart in order to get through it all.

“How is he?” He asked, clearing his throat as he moved closer to her, his voice low as his footsteps thudded through the mostly empty room.

“He’s alive,” She manages to force out, her throat tight with unshed tears and unspoken emotions.

Because he was alive, his heart was still beating, and his soul was still here.

But there had been a very long moment earlier in the evening when she hadn’t been so sure about that when she thought he was gone.

“That’s a start,” He says quietly as he comes to a stop behind her, “He’s lucky in that regard and a couple of others.”

Her eyes moved away from the man on the hospital bed, drifting up and over her shoulder to the one behind her.

The one who had snuck out of his dorm in the middle of the night, just so he could come and make sure she was okay.

Even after everything that had been said and done.

He seemed to be fighting with himself over something, about whether to say or do something that he wasn’t sure if he could do anymore.

After a moment, his hand came down to rest on her shoulder, the touch managing to make her relax, even if it was only marginally.

As if operating on autopilot, her free hand moved up to rest on top of his, squeezing it slightly to try and communicate how grateful she was for him being there.

“He’ll be okay,” He says after a moment, his eyes drifting between her and the body on the bed, “He’s stubborn like that.”

Penny did know that, had had a ringside to his stubbornness and mild stupidity all year. But she was having a hard time convincing herself that he was going to be okay.

Not when his skin was still so cold and clammy to the touch, having lost the sunshine that seemed to radiate out of him on a good day.

Not when he had been cursed in the way that he had.

Not when the blood of the person who had cursed him ran through her veins.


	2. The Quidditch World Cup

August 22nd, 1994

The early afternoon sun was still high in the sky, burning brilliantly on what could only be described as a perfect summer day in England. There weren’t any clouds in the sky, and it was warm enough for shorts but not the same blistering heat that they had suffered through last summer.

It was, in Penny’s opinion, the perfect summers day. Even more perfect, when one considered that the Quidditch World Cup final was only in a matter of hours. It had been years since one had been hosted in England and she had been looking forward to this since May.

The coming school year was going to be big for her, a year of studying for her O.W.L’s and acing them, as well as her first year leading the charge as the captain of her house Quidditch team. 

That particular letter had been a shock to her. She knew that she was a fairly talented player, she didn’t have the lightning quick reflexes of Malfoy or the brute strength of Vassey but she was a good chaser. She paid attention to the flaws in the other teams strategies, as any Slytherin worth their coin would have.

Regardless though, she had never anticipated Marcus Flint of all people to choose her as his successor. The same burly, foul-tempered boy who had openly disparaged female Quidditch players and their ability to keep up with their male counterparts.

She knew that she was bound to face opposition from the rest of the team who would predictably ignore her guidance as captain and her insistence that they didn’t need to knock people off their brooms in order to win matches.

That, however, was a problem for Hogwarts Penny. The strategic Slytherin who kept her wits about her and didn’t allow the problems of boys to ruffle her feathers. That Penny had to keep her head in the books and the pitch this year to make sure she achieved her goals. 

But it wasn’t September for another 10 days, and until she saw that train, she could continue to be summer Penny. The Penny who allowed herself to spend countless hours lazing near the pond on her family’s property. Who spent mornings helping her Gryffindor sister with her transfiguration homework and evenings helping her mother prepare dinner. 

She could put off her studiousness for a little while longer yet. Until at least the next weekend or until she had to start repacking her trunk for school.

She especially didn’t need to think about it today, not when the sun was shining and there was a historical quidditch match to be played that evening between Bulgaria and Ireland.

“Ugh, why is it so hot today?!” Her sister’s voice came from beside her, signature whine evident in her tone, “Don’t they know that it’s nearly autumn?”  
Penny couldn’t help the snort that escaped her as she shook her head at her younger sister. It was mindboggling how different the two sisters were when they had been raised the exact same way.

Amalia Winters was loud and impulsive and had confidence that was unheard of in a fourteen-year-old. She was high maintenance and had the ability to be incredibly vain when it came to people’s looks. She was the definition of a reckless Gryffindor, but Penny also knew a different side of her.

She knew the side that her sister rarely let anyone see, the one who lingered in the library near closing to help the first years put their books away and the one who used to send Penny letters every day during her first year, begging her to come home because she missed her. 

“It is summer, Lia,” She rolled her eyes, slipping her arm through her younger sisters as the two of them trailed after their father and younger brother. It was the first time that Andy had been able to come to the finals, with their mother refusing to let the eight-year-old accompany the two girls and their father last time.

The war had left lasting impacts throughout the wizarding world, but specifically for the Winters family. Their sacrifices had been deep and could still be seen in the way that their parents kept a, sometimes annoyingly, close watch on their children as much as they could.

The children had more freedom now that they were all at Hogwarts, though they weren’t in the same house and didn’t interact unless the situation called for it. They were able to be out from under their parents’ thumb, even if Penny did keep her eye on her younger siblings as well.

“I don’t have a problem with summer,” Lia scowled up at her older sister, still not quite as tall as her, though Penny was certain that she would overcome her before the year was out. Their mother was long-limbed and as elegant as they came, and Penny was certain that Lia would be the same.

“Just complaining for the hell of it then, are we?” Penny shoots back at her pointedly, raising an arched eyebrow in her sister’s direction, “That surprises me not at all.”

“All I’m saying,” Lia cuts in, glaring at Penny contemptuously, “Is that there surely must be some magical way to stop us all from sweating like birds in a cage.”

“There’s probably some sort of charm on the stadium,” Penny muses, her dark eyes moving from her sister’s golden hair to the dark heads of their father and younger brother, bobbing through the crowd, “But I don’t know that there’s one which could cover the entire campgrounds.”

“Ridiculous if you ask me,” Lia huffs, rolling her eyes petulantly at her sister’s no-nonsense response which left no room for argument, “I can’t wait for summer to be over and to forget about this horrendous heat for another year.”

“Not long now,” Penny assured her, “Another week and a half and we’ll be back on the Hogwarts Express and pretending that nobody knows we’re related.”

The two sisters didn’t speak for a while after that, ambling through the crowds as their eyes took in the various sights that were available around the campsite. There were families grouped together around tents, friends intermingling while their parents debated who would win the match – Penny was even sure that she spotted a gaggle of third years from her own house trying to steal a flask of something away from a parent.

There was a raw energy that was sparking through the crowd that afternoon, much like what she assumed it would feel like to touch wild magic, and it seemed to be filling everyone there with a wild buzz that made them easily excitable.

She let out a small sigh of relief when her father stopped outside of a tent which most definitely looked as though it had seen better days than some of the flashier ones around it. Penny could only guess that the tent belonged to someone who her father knew from his work at the Ministry.

As they got closer to the tent, the occupants became abundantly clear to Penny. There was shouting and a large commotion coming from the tent, the kind which she had come to associate exclusively with the Weasley family.

Growing up in Devon, specifically on the opposite side of the village to Ottery St. Catchpole, meant that Penny had spent a lot of her early years with the Weasley, Diggory, and Fawcett families. 

She was no stranger to the wild energy and full-on nature of the Weasley family. She had been taught to bake by Molly Weasley and had her first kiss with Fred Weasley in the orchards behind their house when she was twelve years old. 

Her eyes looked to her father expectantly, waiting to hear what his plan was between now and the match. Her brother looked like he was about to jump out of his skin in excitement and she wasn’t sure that she was mentally prepared to be exposed to that kind of high-strung energy for the hours leading up to the match.

Unsurprisingly, however, it was her sister who spoke up first, before anyone could even open their mouth.

“Daddy,” She started, batting her long lashes at their father in that patented Lia way of hers, “Would it be alright if I went to see some friends? They’re not far from here and I promise to go straight there and back without speaking to anyone unfamiliar.”  
Penny expected her father to cave immediately like he usually did whenever Lia asked him anything at all. She was his favorite and they all knew it. 

She was surprised, however, when her father looked extremely hesitant and unsettled at the idea of Lia going off on her own. 

“I don’t know, Amalia,” He frowned at her, “I don’t like the thought of you wandering off on your own. What if you can’t find your way back, or if you get into trouble without an adult there?”

“I’m not six, Dad, for the love of Merlin, I’m fourteen!”

“Nobody is calling you a child-“

“It sounds like that’s exactly what you’re calling me-“

“I’ll go with her,” Penny finds herself blurting out, if for no other reason than to shut her sister up and prevent world war three from occurring. Her sister had a temper like a banshee and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with the fallout today.

“Really?” The tone of total surprise is evident in both her sister and father’s voices as they both turn to look at her, matching green eyes meeting her own.

“Sure,” Penny shrugs lightly, flashing a smile towards her father, “I want to see if I can find anyone selling a program of the match anyway and I think the vendors are that way.”

“Straight there and straight back, do you understand me?” Their father’s voice was stern and firm, yet yielding, which meant that he was agreeing that both of the girls could go off on their own and do what they had asked to.

“Yes, dad,” Both sisters chorused back at him, matching grins of innocence painted on their faces before they turned and slipped back into the crowds, disappearing into the sea of people milling about.

“So who are we going to see then?” Penny presses with a grin, nudging her sister sharply, “Must be pretty important if you wouldn’t even mention their name to dad.”

She had so few opportunities to tease her sister as they got older, especially considering the way they were divided because of ridiculous house politics at school. She had to make the most of it while she still could.

“Just some friends,” Lia muttered back, her green eyes scanning the sea of tents and people for her friends. Penny can tell the moment she finds them because her green eyes light up and she can hear someone shout Lia’s name rather loudly.

And considering all the noise and commotion that was surrounding them, this person had to practically bellow her name to be heard.

“Seamus!” Lia beams as she bolts away from the crowd, leaving Penny to follow after her at a much more sedate pace, “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find you!” She grins as she throws her arms around a dark-haired boy who Penny knew to be in her year.

Because of course, it was a boy.

Where Penny was sure of herself, sarcastic and pragmatic, Lia was boy crazy, passionate, and impulsive.

You really couldn’t have found two different siblings if you tried.

She approached the two hugging teenagers, vaguely familiar with both of the boys that Lia was standing with. She had met Lia’s friends before, of course, but had always dismissed them as little kids, whereas she was older and had bigger fish to fry.

They didn’t seem so little anymore.

“What, you mean you couldn’t hear him from a mile away?” The dark-skinned boy beside Seamus snorted, allowing Lia to throw her arms around him in a similar and yet considerably briefer embrace.

“Oi, don’t forget who got you your ticket, mate,” Seamus scowled at the other boy, seemingly unaware of Penny watching the interaction.

“You’re not my only option for friendship,”

“Oh yeah? Got someone else waiting in the wings, have ya?”

“Gotta have a backup plan when you inevitably blow yourself up, mate-”

“Just because you don’t have an exciting bone in your body-”

“If that’s what you call exciting, I’d hate to find out what you consider dangerous-”

Deciding that she had been watching like a weirdo for long enough, Penny steps away from the crowd, approaching the trio of Gryffindor’s.

“Well well well, it’s certainly interesting to see the company that you keep when you’re at school, Lia,” She smirks, her eyes moving over the three of them slowly, “I’ll be sure to tell dad all about it.”

“Penny!” Lia groaned as she extricated herself from the bubble that the three housemates had found themselves in, “Don’t be mean!”

“Mean? Me?” Penny asks innocently, placing a hand over her chest, “Why, I’m just being an honest and forthcoming daughter.”

“Penelope!” Lia snaps in annoyance, her pale arms crossing over her chest stubbornly, “Don’t be a wretched cow!”

“Lia, she’s just being an older sibling,” The dark-skinned one snorts derisively, “I’m the same when my sisters have crushes on anyone.”

“Dean! I don’t have a crush!”

“You take that back, you bloody great git!”

Penny can’t help but snicker unhelpfully at the exchange happening between the three of them. She didn’t have friends like that in her own house, which she was mostly fine with. She was more of a study alone in the library kind of girl, but it was nice to watch them interact with each other.

She knew that both of them were good friends of Lia’s, obviously, and had met them several times over the years. She might not have been quite so touchy-feely with her emotions as the Gryffindor’s were, but she appreciated that there was someone, or two someone’s, looking out for her sister in the lion’s den.

It had also struck her, on closer inspection, that these two were not the same long and gangly boys that had visited last summer. She knew from past experience that boys tended to go through their big growth spurt either between third and fourth year or between fourth and fifth year.

It seemed as though Dean had gone through his over this summer. It was true that he’d never been an unattractive boy, but he’d also been her little sister’s friend and she’d never paid him much mind apart from noting that he was there and vaguely cute in a little brother kind of way.

Now though, now she was noticing how he had grown into his arms and chest and they were looking less … skeletal, for lack of a better word. He was taller than her already, though that wasn’t a difficult task, and the broad good-natured grin on his face only added to his attractiveness.

Not that Penny had time for such things. This was a big year for her at school with her O.W.L’s and Quidditch and the general animosity that she was forced to be submitted to between her house and theirs. It was rather exhausting at the best of times.

Personally, she didn’t give a rat’s arse about whether someone’s tie was green or red – if they weren’t a monumental twat to her, then that was just fine by her. Unfortunately, some of the more … enthusiastic members of her house and some of the others seemed to think that house loyalty meant more.

“Bit defensive there, aren’t they?” Penny says with a nod towards where her sister and Seamus were now bickering back and forth about why they did or didn’t have a crush on each other. It was honestly pretty bloody obvious at this point, but Gryffindor’s weren’t known for their logic.

“Oh this is nothing,” Dean snorts, his dark eyes meeting hers as he tears his eyes away from his friends, “You should’ve seen them last year when they fought over the last sugar quill in Honeydukes.”

“Knowing my sister, it can’t have been pretty,” Penny finds herself laughing, easily able to picture her sister hexing Seamus over a sugar quill, “Any scars?”

“Unfortunately not,” Dean smirks, his eyes drifting over to his friends again, “She just sucker-punched him in the gut and bolted with it.”

“Sounds like Lia,” She snorts, “You Gryffindor's always have to solve things with your fists, now don’t you?”

“And your lot don’t?” Dean asks incredulously, raising his brows at her, “Last year, I watched you jump off your broom and slap Marcus Flint right across the face.”

Penny had almost forgotten about that one. He’d made an absolutely disgusting remark about one of the current fourth years, something about how someone should give her a lesson in anatomy at the celebratory party that night, and Penny had wanted to make sure nobody got any ideas.

She had also made sure to all of the third and fourth-year girls how to cast a blasting hex, but that was a story for another time.

“Sometimes a well-placed hex just isn’t enough,” She shrugged loftily, “And Marcus Flint was a right foul pig, probably still is, come to think of it.”

“Aside from the slapping, you were pretty good in that game, the Ravenclaw chasers couldn’t keep up with you,” He continues on, his focus seeming to be entirely on her as he spoke.

“A compliment from a Gryffindor?” She raised her eyebrows at him, a sly smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, “Godric must be rolling over in his grave.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” He responds, his dark eyes glimmering with mirth as a smirk tugs at the corners of his mouth, the sight of it making her heartbeat pick up a little.

There was just something that was so attractive about a smirk that didn’t make a guy look like a total creeper.

She was only human, alright?!

“Oi!” Seamus’ voice cut through the air, causing both of them to look over at him again, “Ma says the Irish team popped up over near the stadium, let’s go check it out!”

Penny can see a hopeful look on her sister’s face but knows that her mother would have a heart attack if they went, and Penny would personally never hear the end of it. Because Lia, like all true Gryffindor’s, was a horrendous secret keeper and an even worse liar.

“Lia, dad will be wondering where we’ve gotten to,” She said with a pointed look towards her sister, who scowls in return. “You know if we’re not back, he’ll send out a search party.”

“Ugh, fine!” Lia scowls, looking up at Seamus hopefully for a moment, “See you guys later then?”

“I’m sure you’ll hear him,” Dean answers for his best friend with a smirk, narrowly dodging the whack that comes for him a moment later. 

“Mate, I’m never taking you anywhere ever again,” Seamus glares at him, “You’re a shit best mate.”

“Maybe, but I’m all you’ve got,” Dean replies with a shrug, smirk still painted across his mouth. 

“Come on then,” Seamus growls, yanking Dean along with him as they move into the crowd, “Later Winters’!”

The two of them disappear into the crowd, blending into the sea of people that sweeps them up, leaving the girls stood together on the side of the path.

“Don’t tell daddy,” Lia blurts out as the two girls head back towards the Weasley tent, her green eyes wide with worry as she looks at her sister, “Please, Penny, promise you won’t!”

“What will you give me if I don’t?” 

“Do you have to be such a bloody Slytherin?!” Lia hisses, glaring at her as they walk back along the path again, “Can’t you just do it because you’re my sister and not because of some kind of reward?”

“Do you really think I want to be in the position of having to tell dad that you were standing that close to a boy?” Penny snorts as they duck around a group of boisterous Irish fans, eyeing them with suspicion and speculation, “I’m not a Hufflepuff, you know.”

“Oh Merlin, thank you!” Lia sighs with audible relief, “You’re the best sister ever!” She proclaimed as they stepped into the tent, the noise level hitting them like a wave of solid sound as they do so.

Penny’s family weren’t overly loud unless they were arguing about something, but the same could not be said for the Weasley family. Loud was the only way they knew how to be, and Penny supposed that was what happened when you jammed nine people into a house like the burrow.

Their noise, however, was catchy and you couldn’t be in their company without joining in on the noise and energy that seemed to surround them. The tent was no different.

She could see her father and Andy at the table, along with Mr. Weasley, and what looked like Bill and Charlie, though it had been a few years since she had seen either of the eldest Weasley boys.

She could see the twins crowded in the kitchen, hunched over a scrap of parchment with their friend, Lee Jordan, no doubt planning some elaborate prank or scheme of some kind.

She couldn’t see Ron, but she was the least familiar with him out of all the Weasley’s, and figured that he was probably off somewhere with Hermione and Harry – those three seemed to travel in a pack that agitated half of her house.

Lia had left her side, joining Ginny on a couch, where they were pouring over a magazine of some description.

She might have been tempted to duck out herself and attempt to find some of her own friends, she knew that some of them were around here somewhere.

That is, until she looks to the table again and notices the sandy-haired boy seated at the end.

She really was too busy this year for any kind of distractions, especially those of the male variety. But when Cedric Diggory raises his hand and waves in her direction, a half-smile tugging at his lips, she thinks that she might not have as much control over that situation as she thinks she does.


End file.
